Everyone Says That Love Hurts
by Twilight Warrior 1994
Summary: But they never stated how much.


_**In my stories What's In a Name & It's Not You It's Me usually Means It's You, I've alluded to Kaldur & Artemis falling in love and having sex while still undercover. This is how I imagine it would go. Kinda sorta inspired by The Cab's Temporary Bliss, Evanescence's Anywhere, & Nickelback's Far Away.**_

* * *

My name is Kaldur'ahm. And I am without a doubt losing my mind. I know I am because I am in love. I am in love with a woman who belongs to another.

This woman is named Artemis Crock, though aboard the sub she is known as Tigress. She is the most amazing woman on this or any world. She is as brave as any man, perhaps even braver. She lives passionately, like today may be her last. She can think about as fast as Flash can run. She can take men three times her size. And she is quite beautiful. Even more so than Tula.

_And she is not mine_. I have no right to think such things of her outside of professional courtesy.

But still, when I am alone, they creep up on me like a vengeful wraith. Especially in the freedom my dream world offers me, where Artemis and I are free together, free from the conflict of our daily lives. And what I fear worst of all is that Artemis reciprocates these feelings.

This is also how I know I am going insane. Would not most men triumph at the thought of winning the affections of a woman such as Artemis, even if another man claims her as his own already? It is not as though I have been open with my feelings to anyone. Far from it actually. It is just that as of late, I have noticed how Artemis looks at me.

It is a look that speaks volumes of love and longing. I know because I used to see it on myself when I looked at Tula, and now Artemis. Most likely it is my mind playing a cruel joke, trying to alleviate my guilt by making me think that at least Artemis returns my feelings.

Still, I cannot truly say why I am currently standing outside her door in my heavy Manta armor, trying to find the nerve to enter. I have no true reason for speaking to her tonight. I just fear that is I do not reveal these feelings to her soon, they may fester inside of me, as they did with Tula, a hollow ache in my chest that may never truly go away.

_Would Artemis cower outside a door for fear of confrontation? _No. No she would not. She never has. So I must not now. I breathe as deeply as I can, square my shoulders and knock. "Yeah?" I know she only spoke like that because she has a role to play. As do I. But not tonight. Tonight I merely wish to be Kaldur'ahm, before I learned I am the son of Black Manta, and for her to be Artemis, not the soulless Tigress.

I enter. Artemis is standing by the bed, a book lying pages down on it, clearly having just gotten up from it. Even though it is late, around two in the morning, she is awake. She often is.

She once told me how she hates to sleep on the sub. I could not blame her. Even I, who before often slept in a pod thousands of miles underneath the ocean, knew that the coarse thin sheets that make it near impossible to get warm and thin matress that offered no comfort would be far from appealing. But she elaborated further about how she was constantly feeling a malevolent force around her, finding her dreams turning into nightmares. I ended up offering her a small sanctuary. I would slip to her room and stay awake on her bed while she slept beside me, often with her head in my lap.

Maybe this was when my feelings for her shifted from perfectly platonic to madly and deeply loving. Acting as a literal guard against the fears that barrage Artemis when she is most defenseless.

She wears only her Tigress uniform, without her mask, and of course the ever constant glamour charm around her neck. Her hair is down. I enjoy seeing her with her hair down. Perhaps because it says to me that it is a small freedom that Artemis does not allow herself. She visibly relaxes when she sees that it is only me, her shoulders loosening and letting out a small sigh.

"Sorry. If I'd known it was you-"

"It is well. I merely have something to discuss with you." She looks a little worried now, and turns away from me to hide it, most likely fearing that I am about to tell her our latest assignment from my father.

"I believe, that, I have come to care for you. In a way that I should not. But I also belive that you feel the same for me." She stiffened when I spoke, standing ramrod straight. A moment of silence passes between us, both just standing. Finally she speaks, in a voice that holds great sadness "Is it that obvious?"

She turns back to me, and I see her eyes are shining with unshed tears. It breaks my heart in ways I never thought imaginable. And yet I understand it completely. Wally. It is unspoken and yet it as though he is literally in the room between us.

I walk over to her, cup her face in my hands. She closes her eyes as the tears overflow, and she turns her head slightly but my hands prevent her from doing so completely. I wipe the stray tears away from her cheeks with my thumbs. She may hate me for what I am about to do next.

"Artemis... what happens next... please do not hesitate to say no." I lean forward, hopefully making my intentions fully clear to her. If they are she makes no attempt to stop me. Then my lips touch hers. It was a perfectly innocent kiss, like the first shared between young lovers, new to the sensation, and yet I know I felt heat like never before rising inside of me.

As for what happened afterward, I take full responsibility. I deepened the kiss, pushing my tongue past her lips and Artemis reciprocated. I truly wish I could say now that I knew what I was doing then, but I did not. I was drunk on that simple kiss.

Somehow we ended up facing each other, cross-legged and in our undergarments on her bed, our respective uniforms thrown to the floor with careless abandon. At first we simply touched one another, like we were trying to memorize every inch of the others skin. Then she kissed me, and I pushed her down to the bed. My hand wrapped itself around her golden hair.

Eventually my lips left hers and made their way down her throat, to her chest and the tops of her breasts and lower still to her abdomen. One hand played with the waistband of her underwear. Maybe it was my imagination, but she shifted her hips up slightly.

It was then that I lifted myself to look her in the eyes. "Are you absolutely certain?" Her eyes were shinening, and I wish I could say from happiness or pleasure. She did not answer, but she definitely lifted her hips to meet my hand then. I kissed the skin under her ear and told her "Say no and I will stop."

My hand dipped past the waistband. My fingers ghosted up and down her slick folds. Her hips rolled forward slightly to meet them. I took that as a sign of acceptance. I pushed one finger slightly into her entrance, pulled it out, then pushed two more back in a little deeper, continuing this process until my hand was completely submerged in her womanhood.

And, bless the gods, Artemis was either my reward for some unknown heroic, or my punishment for some just as unknown sin. She felt amazing. I pressed against her walls and rubbed her small nub of flesh and pushed my hand in and out until, with a sigh no louder than a moth's wings, she came. Perhaps I should have stopped there, but I did not.

I pulled her underwear down and off her legs, lowered myself to her folds, and lapped at them with reckless abandon, pushing my tongue in and out of her entrance. It was not much of this before she came again. I am certain I should have stopped there, but again I did not. Instead I lowered myself next to her on the bed so that I could remove my own underwear. Rolling back on top of her, I saw she had removed her bra.

The head of my desire pressed against her entrance, the evidence leaking out, but I refrained. I had to be certain. "Artemis, are you sure?" Again, no answer. She simply wrapped a hand around my member and pulled me closer to her entrance. "Say no at any point." I took her lips with mine and entered slowly, until I rolled my hips and pushed myself in fully.

I would never try to speak for Artemis, but in that moment, I was alone. No red-headed ghost invaded my thoughts. The only woman I thought of was a blonde human.

We hardly made any noise aside from a heavier breathe than we may have normal taken, partly because we did not wish to be heard (the walls were steel but at times such as these they were thinner than tissue), partly because the guilt of what we were doing was so crushing on our lungs.

Her walls clenching tightly around my member and a warm mist of liquid surrounding it told me that Artemis had reached her release. Mine was not long after. I layed my head to rest over her heart, listening as it slowed back down to it's regular pace.

Also because I could not face Artemis, who was allowing the tears she had been holding back to run free down her cheeks.

* * *

"What if we just left? Just disappeared into the night? We could be half way to anywhere by the morning's light." Artemis is leaning forward with her arms resting on her knees which are drawn up to her chest and her hair falling forward around her face like a golden curtain, and I am lying back on the bed, touching her back with some amazement. It is the one part of her body that is mostly unscathed.

Even as I say it I know it is wrong. Artemis outright says so. "If **I** can't do that to our friends, I know **you** can't. Besides, where could we possibly go?" She is right. I sigh through my nose and lean forward to press my lips to her shoulder. Of course she is right.

My father's voice speaks over the intercom, and we both look to it. "Tigress, find my son and report to me immediately for your latest assignment."

I breathe deeply through my nose. Our bliss was only supposed to be temporary but still. Back to the real world.

We leave the bed and dress slowly, because we stopped to kiss every few minutes. Before leaving the room, we held hands and embraced, Artemis holding to me with all her strength, me less so for fear of hurting her. When we pulled back, she looked me in my eyes and said "I love you."

I kissed her forehead. Perhaps a lesser man would not have spoken back out of not returning the feelings. But I am not a lesser man. I did not speak because I found it too painful. What we feel we may never be able to truly express again outside of the iron confines of this ship.

For now, I will do what is necessary, and let the memory of this night and what may come later be the force that drives me forward.

* * *

_**Have I tugged a few-heart strings yet?**_

_**I've been working on this thing since the beginning of April. Createtivity. She is a bitch.**_


End file.
